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Crime Feb 12, 2022
| Image courtesy of Bx0001/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
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Body camera video of a fatal shooting by a sheriff’s deputy that is being litigated in Riverside County Superior Court was released publicly Friday, showing the deputy firing multiple rounds from his pistol while pursuing a 26-year-old suspect, including four rounds after the man had collapsed.
“Edward Paul Manning was unarmed, nonviolent and was running away when the deputy repeatedly shot him in the back,” attorney John Taylor said. “Edward wasn’t a threat to any deputy. He needed help, but instead, the deputies escalated the situation and killed him.”
Taylor and co-counsel Peter Reagan are representing the Manning family in a civil suit against the sheriff’s department and county, seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages for the 2017 shooting. Following a judge’s order directing sheriff’s personnel to release it, the lawyers provided the bodycam footage during a news briefing in downtown Riverside.
“In public, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department claims to embrace transparency, but behind closed doors, the department fights to keep evidence like this video from coming to light,” Reagan said. “They preach transparency in public but encourage secrecy in private.”
Sheriff’s officials declined to comment on the video, saying there would not be a formal response because the litigation is unresolved.
According to the plaintiffs, Manning was “dumpster diving,” or trespassing, in the bins adjacent to the Desert Premium Outlets on Seminole Drive in Cabazon about 9:30 p.m. March 4, 2017, prompting security officers to call 911.
Patrol deputies reached the location a short time later and confronted Manning, who fled eastbound on Seminole, dodging street traffic before racing across Interstate 10, somehow avoiding being hit on the freeway, according to sheriff’s reports published immediately after the shooting.
Numerous patrol units converged on the location to apprehend Manning, using a sheriff’s helicopter to aid in the search.
Deputy George Scott encountered the suspect on Johnson Lane while helping establish the perimeter and gave chase, running after Manning as the suspect headed into a large field, investigators said.
Scott noticed what he believed to be a metal object in Manning’s left hand and apparently assumed it was a firearm, officials said.
The bodycam video begins with Scott in foot pursuit, shouting “Let me see your hands! Drop it!”
Then there is a rapid succession of 11 shots, after which Manning collapses underneath a tree. Scott then shouts again, “Let me see your hands! Let me see your hands!”
Manning replies, “Alright,” and Scott shouts, “Put your hands up,” immediately firing an additional four rounds. The mortally wounded Manning moans in agony but doesn’t say anything more.
Scott proceeds to make an announcement on his radio, stating, “Subject is shot. However, he’s not giving his hands. We cannot see him. He’s underneath a tree. I can’t see his hands. He was pointing something at me. He’s holding it in his waistband.”
Scott reloads his semiautomatic sidearm and is joined by four to five other deputies, including a sergeant, all of whom train their firearms on Manning, who is immobile, according to the video.
Roughly two minutes later, Manning is handcuffed. He was taken to a trauma center, where he died that night.
Neither Scott nor his fellow deputies were injured.
Sheriff’s Sgt. Brandi Swan told City News Service that Scott went “to another (law enforcement) agency,” though she did not disclose which one and didn’t specify when he made the move.
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